I saw your file and at first glance, it appeared to be a good idea. So, I installed it, and began looking at the changes it would make and how they would play out. As it is turning out, the changes made are not as cut and dried as you might think. Looking at some of the places where these statics are used, revealed some problems.
A good place to start is outside Whiterun and Cells 2 -2 and 3 -2 outside Whiterun. This spot has a couple of good examples.
In Cell 2 . -2 , the object dirtclifftundra01, which is used a whole 3 times, actually looks worse if you install this. But, the reason for this, is the Landscape itself. Cell 2 , 2 and uses LFieldGress01NoGrass textures as the primary texture in 3 of its 4 quads. I cant see what dev was going for, they made those tundra to blend with the landscape textures they were mainly using.
Now there are two ways look at this, either the changed tundra pieces here are 'right', and its the choice of landscape textures that are 'wrong', or, vice-versa. If I unsinstall this, then the textures in cell 2 -2 are at least consistent. If you activate this, then, they are not.
Now for the some of texures, I think the changes are a good idea, an example would be the TundraStreamBend01Tundra01. The changes to that piece probably work at lot better than say, the Dirtclifftundra01 example.
Collectively, the pieces in this file appear ~ 450 times in Skyrim. So, one needs to look at not just the pieces themselves, but, the TERRAIN they are placed in. I have not looked at every single location of cource, but looking at even a couple of them, at least I was able to figure out why they they were textured (vanilla)the way they were.
The author here, is trying to make dirtcliffs and tundra look like dirtcliffs and trudra, which he did. BUT, the guys at bethesda, textured them to look more or less consistent with the Landscape textures they intended to use these pieces with, which is why they have so much grass in them. Im quite certain, even looking at a few cells, that that is what is going on.
Going to keep looking around and see what I can see.
Much thanks for this detailed post. I never noticed the problems you describe here since I use verdant at grasssize 40 and handpicked textures. The main purpose was to eliminate the green rings around the dirtcliffs in the tundra area Which worked out good. This mod was created with textures already replaced so In the editor view it was matching up quite nice. So from what you tell me now this plugin has to be made for a texture pack specific but I don't have the will to do it, there are so many out there and everybody's using a different one or mixed.
If you could do a modification to the esp dependent on what textures you use you could share it here and I'll add it to the download section.
Hello again. submitted an image to illustrate what I was referring to, easier when you see it. The piece in the image is the tundra stream bend outside Whiterun.
As you can clearly see in the image, your changes dont blend with the existing *Landscape* texture adjacent to it, and this occurs with the other statics as well. In order to make this fix work, at least in my setup or similar, would require changing the entirety of the landscape itself, which is a somewhat larger task, lol. Now, there could well be some Landscape texture mods this works well with, but, I think it is going to a case of YMMV.
So, while this file may be a fix for specific setups, I dont think it is accurate to characterize any of this as a flaw on Bethesdas part in need of a fix. That is not what I see occurring for me, at least with noble2k.
Haveing said that, I think if this were marketed as a Modders Resource, ie, one that offers greater variety than the somewhat limited CK has on offer, that would work a lot better than as a 'fix', unless one specifies exactly what it is intended to fix. One of the problems a lot of these pieces have, is, a lack of variety and or odd textures that dont always work well with the surrounding landscape. I run into this in the custom worldspace I am working on updating and some of these pieces grass textures are really at odds with the grass surrounding it. The problem, is lack of variety in the CK. I could show you some pics from my worldspace and I think you could relate.
Some times, I had a piece I wanted to place somewhere, but the textures were not quite aligned with what the landscape was doing beside it, and I thought to myself, be nice if the CK had more texture options than what It offers. Which is why I took notice of your file in the first place. Give them custom FormIDs so they dont conflict in world, and you'd have a modders resource.
What this esp tries to fix is that Bethesda assigned a different texture set on the dirtcliffs in the tundra than the surrounding ground. In vanilla gameplay this doesn't matter cause everything is grey anyway.
The reason it doesnt match is because i assigned filedgrass01 to the dirtcliffs since I use 01 for tundragrass too so I don't have a color missmatch outside the grass view distance using verdant.
I see now that doesn't work out for everybody, for noble2k there are either other assignments or a texture swap needed to archive the wanted results.
I'm afraid I can't do a universal fix then, this is the closest. I made a comment in the mod description for that.
12 comments
A good place to start is outside Whiterun and Cells 2 -2 and 3 -2 outside Whiterun. This spot has a couple of good examples.
In Cell 2 . -2 , the object dirtclifftundra01, which is used a whole 3 times, actually looks worse if you install this. But, the reason for this, is the Landscape itself. Cell 2 , 2 and uses LFieldGress01NoGrass textures as the primary texture in 3 of its 4 quads. I cant see what dev was going for, they made those tundra to blend with the landscape textures they were mainly using.
Now there are two ways look at this, either the changed tundra pieces here are 'right', and its the choice of landscape textures that are 'wrong', or, vice-versa. If I unsinstall this, then the textures in cell 2 -2 are at least consistent. If you activate this, then, they are not.
Now for the some of texures, I think the changes are a good idea, an example would be the TundraStreamBend01Tundra01. The changes to that piece probably work at lot better than say, the Dirtclifftundra01 example.
Collectively, the pieces in this file appear ~ 450 times in Skyrim. So, one needs to look at not just the pieces themselves, but, the TERRAIN they are placed in. I have not looked at every single location of cource, but looking at even a couple of them, at least I was able to figure out why they they were textured (vanilla)the way they were.
The author here, is trying to make dirtcliffs and tundra look like dirtcliffs and trudra, which he did. BUT, the guys at bethesda, textured them to look more or less consistent with the Landscape textures they intended to use these pieces with, which is why they have so much grass in them. Im quite certain, even looking at a few cells, that that is what is going on.
Going to keep looking around and see what I can see.
If you could do a modification to the esp dependent on what textures you use you could share it here and I'll add it to the download section.
SSE
Hello again. submitted an image to illustrate what I was referring to, easier when you see it. The piece in the image is the tundra stream bend outside Whiterun.
As you can clearly see in the image, your changes dont blend with the existing *Landscape* texture adjacent to it, and this occurs with the other statics as well. In order to make this fix work, at least in my setup or similar, would require changing the entirety of the landscape itself, which is a somewhat larger task, lol. Now, there could well be some Landscape texture mods this works well with, but, I think it is going to a case of YMMV.
So, while this file may be a fix for specific setups, I dont think it is accurate to characterize any of this as a flaw on Bethesdas part in need of a fix. That is not what I see occurring for me, at least with noble2k.
Haveing said that, I think if this were marketed as a Modders Resource, ie, one that offers greater variety than the somewhat limited CK has on offer, that would work a lot better than as a 'fix', unless one specifies exactly what it is intended to fix. One of the problems a lot of these pieces have, is, a lack of variety and or odd textures that dont always work well with the surrounding landscape. I run into this in the custom worldspace I am working on updating and some of these pieces grass textures are really at odds with the grass surrounding it. The problem, is lack of variety in the CK. I could show you some pics from my worldspace and I think you could relate.
Some times, I had a piece I wanted to place somewhere, but the textures were not quite aligned with what the landscape was doing beside it, and I thought to myself, be nice if the CK had more texture options than what It offers. Which is why I took notice of your file in the first place. Give them custom FormIDs so they dont conflict in world, and you'd have a modders resource.
Regards
The reason it doesnt match is because i assigned filedgrass01 to the dirtcliffs since I use 01 for tundragrass too so I don't have a color missmatch outside the grass view distance using verdant.
I see now that doesn't work out for everybody,
for noble2k there are either other assignments or a texture swap needed to archive the wanted results.
I'm afraid I can't do a universal fix then, this is the closest. I made a comment in the mod description for that.